Amalfi Pasta

When I first tried this recipe last summer, it was like a revelation. Pasta with lemon is the most summery thing ever. Now it’s summer again, and Amalfi Pasta is back to our weekly rotation. This delicious recipe is from the book “The Easy Italian Cookbook”.

Ingredients

Serves 2

  • 160g fresh homemade capellini pasta
  • 2 cans of tuna1
  • 1 large lemon, zested and juiced
  • 1 large garlic clove, finely grated
  • 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan
  • salt and black pepper

Instructions

  1. Make the pasta2! In a large pot, bring water to a boil with 1 tbsp of salt added. Once boiling, cook the pasta for 1 minute, reserve a cup of pasta water and drain pasta immediately.
  2. Drain the cans of tuna and add the fish to a large mixing bowl. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, raw garlic, parsley, olive oil and parmesan. Mix everything, season with a little salt and pepper to taste, add more olive oil if it’s looking too dry. It’s more art than science.
  3. Add cooked pasta and toss until it’s coasted in the tuna-lemon mixture. If the pasta is looking dry, add some pasta water or more olive oil to moisten (it’s not supposed to be dripping wet, just moist).
  4. Plate the dishes, optionally garnish with some more parsley, and enjoy!
Auto-generated description: A plate of pasta garnished with herbs is served on a table alongside glasses of red wine.

  1. The original recipe makes enough for 4 to 6 servings, and uses only 1 can of tuna. That’s too little tuna for my taste and I usually cook for two. I use 2 cans of tuna per 2-3 servings, and 3 cans of tuna for 4-6. ↩︎

  2. Last xmas I bought a Philips 7000 pasta maker for us, and I enthusiastically recommend it to everybody I know! Our favourite dough is simply semola flour and water, and we make this 4 to 5 nights a week. The machine consistently “wastes” about 40g of dough that get stuck inside while extruding the pasta, so to make 160g of pasta, start with 200g of semola and 75g of water. The included cup and recipes suggest 250g of semola and 95g of water and that was just way too much for the two of us! This is the amount we use when making for 3 people. ↩︎

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